00:01G'day viewers, today's the fifth anniversary of my cancer diagnosis and I just want to give you an update.
00:08I started off the year with a bit of a complication. I had a bicycle accident and I shattered my left wrist.
00:19My left wrist has now been reconstructed and I've got a metal plate in there, titanium plate, but it's all good.
00:28I was in hospital for about a week, but anyway, it's all back to normal. Everything's working fine, so no big deal.
00:38With respect to my cancer, 2025 has been pretty good. I've been on immunotherapy for the entire year.
00:48In fact, it started last year. The drug is called daratumumab.
00:53The MAB at the end of the name is an acronym for monoclonal antibodies, as I am told.
01:01So daratumumab, technically now I am in remission.
01:08So I've had cancer twice now.
01:11So I've got blood cancer, multiple myeloma, and it's flared up twice.
01:15Well, the initial instance and then a follow-up instance.
01:21So that's two instances of cancer, blood cancer.
01:26Now, I personally, I expect, look, there's a 9% probability that it's going to happen for a third time.
01:35So the daratumumab is by no means any kind of cure.
01:42It's just a treatment.
01:44So I personally expect, and I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong,
01:48I personally expect that it'll flare up probably somewhere towards the end of next year.
01:55But, you know, hey, I might be lucky.
01:58It might keep working for many years to come.
02:03However, I've got to be realistic about it.
02:07There's a 90% chance that it's going to come back.
02:11There's a good chance I'll survive a third time.
02:14I'm unlikely, I believe, to survive a fourth time.
02:20But that's just the way it is, you know.
02:24There are a lot of people worse off than I am in the world,
02:27so I consider myself to be pretty, pretty lucky.
02:29By the way, viewers, in the background there, you'll see that's actually Hogan's Heroes.
02:35I love the show.
02:36So I've got it playing on the TV.
02:38You might have seen some of the characters there, Colonel Clink and the rest.
02:43They might walk past and you might see them.
02:47So just if you're wondering, that's what's going on in the background.
02:52So, yeah, 2025 has been a pretty good year.
02:56I can't complain other than, obviously, the bicycle accident.
03:00There we go.
03:00There's Colonel Clink there.
03:02I can't complain other than the bike accident where I really ruined my left wrist.
03:09But my, an ongoing issue that I have is my peripheral neuropathy.
03:18So the pain that I have in my feet, my feet feel like they're on fire all the time.
03:22They're just always stimulated.
03:25I've described it a couple of ways.
03:26You can think of it as either like walking on golf balls.
03:32Imagine that you've got golf balls strapped to your feet and you have to walk around with golf balls on your feet.
03:39Not too comfortable, as you can imagine.
03:42That's one way you can think of it.
03:43Or another way, a second way, is imagine a pair of socks filled with gravel and you cannot take those socks off ever.
03:53They're glued on.
03:54So you're stuck with them 24-7.
03:57That is what my neuropathy feels like.
04:00So I just get constant stimulation and it is uncomfortable.
04:08It is painful when you walk.
04:12It is really not a nice thing to have to experience.
04:17But, you know, I've just got to look at it.
04:20I can't, you know, I can't turn it off or chuck it in the bin or anything.
04:25I've just, I've got no choice.
04:26I have to live with it.
04:28But nevertheless, I still try and do two hours of cardio per day.
04:37So I'll either do a 10-kilometre walk or I'll go for a 60- to 70-kilometre bike ride.
04:45So I'll do one of those two things every day.
04:48And I do that to try and prevent myself from having a heart attack because I'm right in the age group where heart attacks are pretty common.
04:59I had a very distressing episode this year, actually, with my mother.
05:08She had a major, major stroke.
05:12She's okay now, but it was very close.
05:17It was a miracle that she didn't die, and it was a miracle that she wasn't permanently disabled from it because it was a very major stroke in a major artery in her brain.
05:34So, yeah, anyway, she pulled through.
05:38I was by her side the whole time.
05:40And, you know, she's now, you know, really good, 98% where she was before.
05:49There will always be a little bit of degradation from something like this, but because she was actually in hospital within 20 minutes of the stroke occurring, that made all the difference.
06:03The faster you can get someone to hospital when they have a stroke, the greater the probability of their survival, and the greater the probability that they will return completely back to normal.
06:17So just a word to everybody, if it ever happens, get them to the hospital absolutely as fast as you can.
06:24And in my mother's case, she was lucky.
06:25She was receiving medical treatment within 20 minutes of experiencing the stroke.
06:35Anyway, so for me personally, for my health, 2025 has been a good year.
06:44And for my mother as well, actually, I suppose, because she survived.
06:47And I was just so grateful that she did.
06:50I just completely turned to custard.
06:52You know, I was just, I completely lost control when this happened.
06:58And I was just, oh, my God, I was a wreck.
07:01Anyway, it's all good now.
07:03Thank goodness.
07:05So 2026, I'm hoping 2026 is going to be another good year.
07:13But as I think I mentioned before, my expectation is that towards the end of 2026, it would not surprise me if my cancer starts to reemerge.
07:28You know, so that's just how it is.
07:32Nevertheless, I still think that I'm a lot luckier than a lot of other people.
07:35Anyway, viewers, I just wanted to give you an update, let you know what's happening, where I was, you know, et cetera.
07:47So, yeah.
07:50Well, take it easy, viewers, and I'll probably speak to you in about a year's time.
07:55Cheers.
07:55Cheers.
07:55Cheers.
07:55Cheers.
07:56Cheers.
07:56Cheers.
07:56Cheers.
07:56Cheers.
